Tengen Guy and Strawberry Girl
by Laziness Incarnate
Summary: Yashiro and Nase play a game, buy sandwiches, eat sandwiches. And maybe something more. Note: This was written for cryforthedream on LJ as as thank you for donating to Superstorm Sandy relief.
1. Tengen Guy and Strawberry Girl

**Tengen Guy and Strawberry Girl**

Yashiro won in the end, but it felt like a loss.

Here's why: earlier in the day he'd glanced at one of his opponent's games and been thoroughly unimpressed. She was just an insei, after all. Truth was, he didn't think much of this study group in general-too many insei, too many people who were obviously there just because they were friends, too much laughter and not enough serious study. Too small an apartment for all these people too. He was kind of pissed off at Shindou for dragging him here. It's not like Yashiro had a lot of time to waste while he was in Tokyo.

So he was kind of shocked to find himself _losing _against the insei girl, to be deep into chuuban and fighting to catch up with every move, to be counting stones in yose and praying for a win.

Most of Yashiro's wins weren't like that.

"One and a half moku," Nase announced, sounding more pleased than annoyed. "I thought I had you beat for most of the game."

He nodded, studying the board, still not sure how he'd not lost.

"It was here," she said, as if answering his thoughts. "This move, way back, maybe twenty moves ago. You've been playing Shindou lately, haven't you? This hand is just like him. It set you up to gain two moku during yose."

"I didn't mean to do it."

"But you must have known, somewhere in the back of your mind. Otherwise why would you have done it? Brilliant."

"You're right," Yashiro replied, then realized what he'd said. "Not the brilliant part, I mean, but what you said, the other part - "

"Ha, don't worry about it. But what you did _here _was even better..."

It anything was brilliant, it was the way her eyes lit up as she told him all about her loss.

By the time they finished their discussion, Yashiro decided he wanted to ask her out. He just needed to figure out a way -

"The other games look like they're going to take a while. Want to go grab something to eat?" she said, beating him yet again.

- 0 - 0 -

He hadn't really been thinking of going to a convenience store, but he'd take what he could get.

"I've been wanting to play you ever since Honda-san told us about his game with you before," she told him as they browsed the bread section. "He keeps talking about it."

"Honda-san?" Yashiro couldn't remember who that was.

"Yeah. You played him before the Hokuto Cup in a practice game of some sort. You played first-hand tengen."

"Oh, I think I remember that."

"He's going to be disappointed," Nase laughed. "He talks about that game so much. For a while I thought maybe he had a crush on you."

Yashiro could picture the guy's face now. Puffy lips, bad skin, boring hair. And...

_If he has a crush on anyone it's you, Nase-san._

But Yashiro didn't say that.

"I half expected you to play tengen on _me_ today," she went on, sighing in mock dejection. "I was so sad when you didn't."

"Is that really how everyone knows me around here?"

"Yeah, you're the tengen guy."

When he didn't respond right away, Nase turned away from the sandwich she'd been examining and said, "Hey, that's a compliment, Yashiro-kun. Tengen is so, you know, risky and rebellious."

He scowled a little, and wondered what his parents would have thought of that. He told her, "Back when we were prepping for the Hokuto Cup, Kurata-san said I'm not strong enough to play hands like tengen and 5-5."

"Really? Don't mention that to Honda-san. He'll be so disappointed. Do you think I should get the ham or the tonkatsu?"

"Um, I would go for the tonkatsu."

"Hm. I guess." Her voice had gone a little vague. "You know, I only lost to you by one and a half moku today, but I don't usually play that well."

"Really?" said Yashiro, feeling a bit guilty for thinking it was probably true.

"Yeah. There's a reason I haven't passed the pro exam yet. I've been trying for five years. And now I've got university entrance exams coming up and my mom says I should quit go. Maybe she's right."

Nase wasn't looking at him anymore. The sandwich rack seemed to have captured all her attention.

"It's just...once in a while," she went on, "I'll play really well, and it gives me some hope, which is almost worst than not having any."

_Why are you telling me all this? _he wondered, but he knew the answer even as he thought to ask the question. _You're willing to talk to me 'cause you think you won't see me again, right, since I'm not from around here. Or...is it because you think you'll never make it as a pro, that you'll never be part of the world I'm in? 'Cause your mom keeps telling you you're not good enough, and you believe her._

He'd heard all that crap before; he still heard it, even if his mom and dad didn't dare criticize him openly now. It was in the way they looked at him, in the things they _didn't _say. _We're proud of you, Kiyoharu. _That's all he'd ever wanted. He'd spent years trying to get them to say it.

But lately...Yashiro would look down at the empty goban, thinking about his first hand, and he would ask himself: were those words really worth waiting for? Because he knew, he _knew_ that whether he made it big or not, whether dad and mom approved or not, he would keep playing. He couldn't help it. The only thing he was waiting for was himself.

And that's why he said:

"I'd rather try and fail, I'd rather do everything I can, than do it half-assed. The way you played today, that was pro-level. If you can play like that - if you can make me sweat and play catch-up and force it to yose - and you still _quit _go I don't think I'll respect you as much anymore. Nase-san."

She glanced at him, sidelong, but he couldn't tell if she was mad or not. "That's easy for a pro to say," she said quietly. "You can play at that level all the time."

"Yeah, so? You played like that today." He could hear how harsh he sounded, but he didn't stop, because he was saying the truth. "I'd rather take the chance that I'll play one great game than a lifetime of safe, just okay games. And your parents will always, always tell you to play it safe, Nase-san, and they're wrong."

For a long time there was nothing between them but the sound of sandwich wrappers crinkling, and he tried to not look at her face. But he couldn't help watching her hands as they wandered aimlessly over the bread rack. They were pretty hands, he could see, but what he noticed most of all were the calluses on the fingertips.

He didn't feel sorry at all for being an ass to her, if it meant she'd keep on playing.

"Maybe not tonkatsu today after all," she finally said. "Maybe I'll get something sugary, give me some energy for the afternoon games."

"Sure, whatever."

"Or maybe I'll be really daring and get...this one. Egg alfalfa strawberry."

"Uh, okay. Yeah."

Now Nase had really gone crazy. But she was smiling, that brilliant smile that'd made him want to ask her out in the first place, and she was holding up the bread between two dainty, go-callused fingers, right in his face.

"Like you said, Yashiro Kiyoharu, we have to do the hard things in life. Otherwise we'll never get stronger."

"I...guess I did?"

"So, let's."

And she dropped the horrible, horrible plastic-wrapped egg alfalfa strawberry sandwich right above his hands, and Yashiro was stupid enough to catch it.

"I don't even really know what alfalfa is," she told him, still grinning away.

- 0 - 0 -

They ate on a park bench, because if Yashiro was going to die a sandwich-related death, it might as well be in public.

"That looks delicious." Nase was grinning as Yashiro unsealed his doom. "Hold on, let me take a picture."

He held up one triangle of the sandwich so it hid his face.

_Click_.

"Perfect! Very weird. It's like a triangular sun, with a halo of spiky white hair around it. Now hold it sideways so I can get a picture of the contents. Yeah, like that."

_Click_.

"It's itadakimasu time, Yashiro-kun."

He handed her the second half of the sandwich, still in its wrapper. Nase rolled her eyes but took it.

"I'm not going to be the only one to suffer," he insisted.

"Of course. I'll be glad to eat half."

He scowled threateningly. "You promise? We together in this?"

"No promises," she said, but her eyes said differently. There was something serious in them, for just a moment, and he caught himself looking at them, at her, without remembering to breathe.

They bit into their triangles at the same time.

Nase chewed thoughtfully for a few seconds before saying, "It actually tastes all right."

Yashiro was trying not to spit it out. "Nothing is right in this sandwich."

"Really? I think the sweetness of the strawberry counteracts the slight bitterness of the alfalfa rather well."

"The strawberries are mushy."

"The saltiness of the egg ties everything together."

"The egg tastes like a sponge, a really salty one. With...dashi and mirin. I can't believe you made me pay for this thing."

"Guys should pay for girls, you know," she remarked. "It's the cool thing to do."

"Yeah," he mumbled, thinking again about how he'd failed to ask her out. So much for being the big risk-taker. He stuffed another chunk of the sandwich in his mouth as if to punish himself. Soon they would be done eating. They'd go back to the apartment to join everyone else and Yashiro would have lost his chance. It was now or never.

He swallowed, screwed up his courage, opened his mouth wide, and -

"Hey, we should go on a real date one of these days," Nase said, beating him yet _again_. "Maybe we can upgrade to NcDonald's or something this time."

"What?" he answered, egg sliding down his chin, totally suave-like. "I mean, yes. You don't mind that I'm younger than you?"

She waved her sandwich dismissively. "It's okay. You're tall. And at least you're going to high school, so you're not illiterate like some people I could mention. I swear, if Shindou and Waya didn't have Isumi-san looking after them, they'd be in jail by now for, I don't know, forgetting to pay their taxes."

"What about me being from Osaka?"

"I really like the accent."

"That's not what I meant," he said.

"Then what did you mean?" She took a dainty, unconcerned bite of her sandwich.

"I'm leaving tomorrow morning, and it's so far from Osaka to Tokyo - "

But even as he was speaking the idea hit him like a freight train - or like a shinkansen, rushing down the Tokaido Line at a million miles an hour, carrying Yashiro away from his parents and all their bullshit, away from the expectations he could never meet, didn't need to meet anymore because here was a fresh start and a new world of go to explore, plus a cool girl who might like him and who could play pretty awesome go to boot, even if she had horrible taste in food.

He held up the sandwich she'd made him buy, or the mashed remains of it, and said, "I'll go on a date, but only if you never make me eat something like this again."

"But you're the one who said we have to try new things. Sometimes life gives you strawberry egg alfalfa, and you just have to make lemonade."

"I was talking about go."

"I guess we can try out new go things together too."

"Yeah." He was looking forward to that.

They ate in silence, Nase with a thoughtful look on her face, Yashiro just trying not to puke.

When they were done, she turned to him and said brightly, "That was interesting. I'm so glad we got the ham chocolate mustard sandwich too."

Yashiro groaned.

"Cheer up, tengen guy!" she told him.

Her smile was still brilliant.

- End -


	2. An Epilogue, Out of Sorts

Author's Note: When I got the request to do a Yashiro/Nase story, this is what I originally churned out. It's slightly depressing! Also short.

If you're a pessimist, it can be seen as the epilogue to "Tengen Guy and Strawberry Girl."

* * *

"Is it the age difference?" asked Yashiro, looking stricken.

"No," said Nase honestly. "You're only a couple years younger than me, and you don't look it."

"Then...?"

"Actually, you're much more mature than others your age," Nase went on, as if she weren't in the middle of breaking his heart. "You cook and clean for yourself and don't sponge off your parents. Also, you have a high school education, unlike some people I could name."

Her voice softened. "When you moved away from home it was for all the right reasons. You're a pro, a good one, and you make enough to support yourself. You know exactly where your life is going."

_Part of the reason I moved away from home was because of you. _But Yashiro had never told her that. And now he couldn't; he wasn't that weak

"You aren't making any sense," he said. "If I'm so great, why do you want to break up with me?"

She sighed. "Because even though I'm older than you, I'm not there yet, and you are. I need to figure out my own life before I can share it with someone else. Should I keep trying to become a pro? Should I throw money into cram school? I don't know."

"So?" He sounded almost angry now. "You think I care if you become a pro or not? That stuff doesn't matter to me."

"I know. But it does to me."

And she kissed him gently on the cheek, as if to say goodbye.

-End-


End file.
